Blogs from Nouakchott, Trarza, Mauritania, Africa

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Climbed into the iron ore train after only an hour of waiting.I'm pretty sure I was the only female in the open bines section (no ticket required), and definitely the only tourist, but I got lucky and rode with three very nice and experienced guys. They had warm blankets and quickly set up a sand firepit in the corner and we had a freshly cooked beef stew tangine and plenty of tea for the trip. The open desert and starry night were wonderful, and the train was a lot more comfortable than expected, even got some good sleep in between the occasional jolt of cars crashing together. Arrived in Zuerat, feeling quite safe despite the hype; one thing that helps is that every police or army officer i have met has been very nice and there ... read more

Arrived in Nouakchott after a 6 hour ride in a small car with a soldier and some older funny men. Learned more about the history of Mauritania by reading my history section in the Lonely Planet I have been carrying around. This country is Desert almost completely so far. I hear it gets a bit more interesting on the border with Senegal. I have been thinking more about my last two major kind of adventures: The Iron-ore train and the camel ride. The train ride was exciting as I already noted. One of the best parts about it was being near the back of the train. Everytime the train started or stopped the train would expand or contract the 1cm or so. But the train is over 2km long, so you can hear it starting and ... read more

Still in Nouachott! I was thinking about leaving today but decided to wait until tomorrow to exchange money. Plus I don’t feel like traveling yet. It’s nice here, although not too much to do. Went to the port-au-peche with Kiryomi and Eri yesterday. This idiot asshole rich-boy Mauritanian drove us. He drove like an idiot with s**tty music blaring and almost hit a kid. He showed no inclination to honk or slow down. Took us to some resort beach, not to the port-au-peche and then told us that we couldn’t go to the port-au-peche because the police would stop us and it was closed anyway because it was Friday. It was all bulls**t. We ditched his pathetic ass (it was blatantly obvious he was only interested in the girls and swimming --- sorry a**hole!) and went ... read more

(Copied from email to family) Hey Guys!! Managed to find the dodgy-est (sp) internet cafe in Mauritania. I actually have a bit of time to tell you about the stuff ive been up to. Trouble is I cant really remember it now. Only when I walk away from the computer will it flood back. I can tell you about recent events but it may sound a bit dodgy. Awesome times though. Sorry my email on Morocco was a bit short, but I didnt really fnid the place enthralling at all. The towns were either amazingly touristy or amazingly samey with the same amount of crap in each. The majority of the truck simply engaged in large amounts of steak eating before we hit the poorer regions or copious amounts of NcDonalds. Souvenirs from morocco therefore simply ... read more

so today Im in nouackchott, theres not much here and Im just resting before I head for saint louis (senegal) through rosso. thus, Ive decided to talk about lariam. honestly, I was quite curious about the effects this antipaludic might have on me, or on anybody else for that matter (as I manifested by asking about it to any single person that had taken it). these effects, besides prevcenting mmalaria with about a 90% of effectiveness are mainly psicological and range from VIVID dremas to mild hallucinations, passing by the always sweet road of paranoia. I had heard people having some crazy ing dreams, not nightmares, just dreams so intense that wouldnt let them rest. heard of others having strong paranoia, which might be quite fun when youre the only skinny weak white piece of around. ... read more